But every time you borrow airtime, buy data on credit or access some mobile financial services, there is another set of companies working behind the scenes that most people have never heard of.

These specialist technology firms provide the software and infrastructure that make many of those services possible, often processing millions of transactions in real time without consumers ever noticing.

Their role recently came into focus during the controversy over the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending (DEON) Regulations, which temporarily disrupted Airtime Credit Services before the matter went to court.

For many industry observers, the episode highlighted just how dependent Nigeria’s digital economy has become on technology providers that operate quietly in the background.

When a subscriber requests an emergency airtime advance, sophisticated software instantly analyses customer behaviour, checks eligibility, manages fraud risks, processes the transaction…